- Coinbase filed notice registration documents with the SEC this week to offer single-stock perpetual futures in the US, taking the first regulatory step toward giving American retail investors leveraged, round-the-clock exposure to stocks without owning them — a product it already offers internationally.
- Coinbase will now work with the CFTC on product approvals and hopes to launch this year; shares jumped 10% Thursday — the biggest one-day gain since May — amid a broad crypto rally, with the stock still down roughly 35% over the past year.
- The move is part of a broader crypto industry push to bring offshore trading mechanics onshore: Kalshi already won CFTC approval for Bitcoin perpetual futures and is filing for equity index perpetuals, while CME Group launched single-stock futures on 50+ top US stocks in July.
- The Blockchain Association sent a comment letter to both the SEC and CFTC in late August calling for greater inter-agency coordination on perpetuals rules — signaling this is an industry-wide regulatory campaign, not just a Coinbase initiative.
What Happened?
Coinbase filed notice registration documents with the SEC to offer single-stock perpetual futures in the US, the company confirmed Thursday via a post on X from its Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad. Perpetual futures — contracts with no expiration date — have become one of the most popular trading instruments on offshore crypto venues like Hyperliquid, where they underpin much of the speculative volume that drove those platforms’ growth. Coinbase already offers the product to international customers and now wants CFTC approval to bring it to US retail investors. Coinbase shares surged 10% Thursday, its biggest single-day gain since May, as crypto markets broadly rallied.
Why It Matters?
Single-stock perpetual futures represent a meaningful expansion of the speculative toolkit available to US retail investors — combining leverage, 24/7 trading, and stock exposure without the ownership, settlement, or expiration mechanics of traditional equity derivatives. The product’s popularity offshore (Hyperliquid has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the speculative trading boom on the back of perps) signals genuine demand that US platforms have been unable to service due to regulatory constraints. Coinbase’s filing, combined with Kalshi’s CFTC win on Bitcoin perps and CME’s July launch of single-stock futures, suggests the regulatory window is opening — and the race to capture this market onshore is accelerating.
What’s Next?
The CFTC approval process is the critical gating item; Coinbase hopes to launch this year, but the timeline will depend on inter-agency coordination between the SEC and CFTC — which the Blockchain Association flagged as a structural gap in its August comment letter. A successful US launch would give Coinbase a differentiated product against traditional brokers and a direct answer to offshore venues capturing US trading dollars in jurisdictions with lighter-touch rules. It also sets up the next competitive flashpoint: which platform — Coinbase, Kalshi, CME, or an offshore venue — will define the standard for how US retail trades perpetual equity exposure.
Source: Bloomberg
